The Contribution of Personality and Intelligence Toward Cognitive Competences in Higher Education

Abstract

Personality and cognition are found to be two interrelated concepts and to both have a predictive power on educational and life outcomes. With this study we aimed at evaluating the extent to which personality traits interact with cognition in acquiring cognitive competences during higher education. In a sample of university students at different stages of their career and from different fields of study, we collected Big Five traits, as a measure of personality, and Intelligent Quotient (IQ), as a proxy of cognition. A set of multiple regressions served to explore the relative contribution of IQ and personality traits on the performance on two cognitive competences tests: literacy and numeracy. Results showed that IQ highly modulated numeracy but had a moderate or no impact on literacy while, compared with IQ, personality affects literacy more. In a further explorative analysis, we observed that both the effects of personality and IQ on cognitive competences were modulated by the level of the students' career (freshmen, undergraduates, and bachelor graduates). Different traits, and particularly conscientiousness, increased or decreased their impact on achieved scores depending on the educational level, while IQ lost its effect in undergraduates suggesting that personal dispositions become more influential in advancing the academic carrier. Finally, the field of study resulted to be a predictor of numeracy, but also an important covariate altering the pattern of personality impact.

Numeracy Gender Gap in STEM Higher Education: The Role of Neuroticism and Math Anxiety

“…There is evidence supporting the predictive role of personality in accounting for individual differences in performance on large-scale competence assessment tests (Borghans et al, 2016;Cerni et al, 2021). Neuroticism, in particular, was found to negatively correlate with performance on various cognitive tasks.…”

“…Neuroticism, in particular, was found to negatively correlate with performance on various cognitive tasks. Higher levels of neuroticism correlated with lower scores on verbal reasoning (Chamorro-Premuzic et al, 2006;Cerni et al, 2021) and intelligence (Moutafi et al, 2006;Graham and Lachman, 2014), as well as with slower reaction times in response inhibition (Graham and Lachman, 2012). Considering numeracy, neuroticism seems to negatively affect numeracy test performance (Spinath et al, 2010;Rammstedt et al, 2016;Brandt et al, 2020), even if findings are not consistent; indeed, in some studies, no association between numerical skills and neuroticism was documented (Chamorro-Premuzic et al, 2006;Meyer et al, 2019;Cerni et al, 2021).…”

“…We thus recruited a sample of male and female STEM undergraduates, with equal levels of Intelligent Quotient (IQ), a variable that strongly affects numeracy (e.g., Cerni et al, 2021). We collected measures of MA and neuroticism using self-report questionnaires.…”

“…For the mediation analysis, statistical power was estimated with Monte Carlo power analysis for indirect effects through the online software designed by Schoemann et al (2017). With an alpha level of 0.05 and assuming a correlation of 0.55 between MA and neuroticism (e.g., correlation between MA and general test anxiety, Ganley et al, 2021), of 0.40 between MA and numeracy (e.g., approximate correlation between MA and multiplication problem accuracy in undergraduate students, Hoffman, 2010) and of 0.03 between neuroticism and numeracy (e.g., Cerni et al, 2021), in simple mediation analysis a power of 0.85 can be reached with 140 participants.…”

Cognition and Academic Performance: Mediating Role of Personality Characteristics and Psychology Health

“…Most factors of personality characteristics and cognitive ability are very weakly correlated, so the two can be independently used as explanatory variables of individual behavior ( Ackerman and Heggestad, 1997 ); even though some scholars believe that cognitive ability and personality characteristics will affect each other ( Borghans et al, 2008 ). Tania’s research on personality traits has a significant impact on information processing ability (IPA) and found that different personality traits, especially conscientiousness, will reduce the impact on performance according to the increase in education level, indicating that personal personality has a greater impact on the promotion of academic achievement ( Cerni et al, 2021 ). In recent years, the causal relationship between the two has been paid more attention.…”